Ac­claimed steel­band arranger Len "Boogsie" Sharpe and di­alect po­et Paul Keens Dou­glas are among 14 peo­ple across the re­gion who will re­ceive hon­orary de­grees from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (The UWI) at its 2020 grad­u­a­tion cer­e­monies.

The cer­e­monies are sched­uled to take place from Jan­u­ary 11–16.

Sharpe is be­ing award­ed a Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt) for steel­pan arrange­ment, com­po­si­tion, and per­for­mance and Keens-Dou­glas for his work in cul­ture and the arts.

The UWI grad­u­a­tions will be in a mix of blend­ed, vir­tu­al for­mats in cel­e­bra­tion of grad­u­at­ing class of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 8500 stu­dents across the re­gion.

The hon­orary doc­tor­ates are in keep­ing with a tra­di­tion of recog­nis­ing Caribbean ex­cel­lence in a wide va­ri­ety of fields such as mu­sic, the­atre, pub­lic ser­vice, med­i­cine, agri­cul­tur­al sci­ence and en­tre­pre­neur­ship among oth­ers. The awards were ap­proved by the Uni­ver­si­ty Coun­cil, which has sanc­tioned over 500 hon­orary de­grees since 1965.

Among the 2020 hon­orary grad­uands to be recog­nised for their out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment are:

Cave Hill Cam­pus

° Soni­ta Al­leyne of Bar­ba­dos for En­tre­pre­neur­ship and con­tri­bu­tions to Jour­nal­ism – Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt)

° Pro­fes­sor Juli­et M. Daniel of Bar­ba­dos for her work in Med­i­cine and Can­cer re­search – Doc­tor of Sci­ence (DSc)

° Dr Julio Frenk of the USA for Lead­er­ship in the field of Med­i­cine – Doc­tor of Sci­ence (DSc)

Open Cam­pus

° Franklyn McIn­tosh of St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines for his work as a Mu­si­cal Di­rec­tor/Com­pos­er – Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt)

° Dr Sir Kennedy Alphonse Sim­monds of St. Kitts and Nevis for Pub­lic Ser­vice lead­er­ship – Doc­tor of Sci­ence (DSc)

Mona Cam­pus

° Glen Chris­t­ian of Ja­maica for En­tre­pre­neur­ship – Doc­tor of Laws (LLD)

° Sir Rod­ney Er­rey Lawrence Williams of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da for Med­i­cine and Pub­lic Ser­vice – Doc­tor of Sci­ence (DSc)

° Robert E. Levy of Ja­maica for En­tre­pre­neur­ship – Doc­tor of Laws (LLD)

° Pro­fes­sor E. Al­bert Re­ece of Ja­maica/USA for lead­er­ship in the field of Med­i­cine – Doc­tor of Sci­ence (DSc)

° Hi­lary Grace Sher­lock of Ja­maica for her work in Spe­cial Dis­abil­i­ties Ed­u­ca­tion – Doc­tor of Laws (LLD)

St. Au­gus­tine Cam­pus

° Pro­fes­sor Edgar Ju­lian Dun­can of St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines for con­tri­bu­tions to Caribbean Sci­ence and Agri­cul­ture – Doc­tor of Sci­ence (DSc)

° Do­mini­co Fe­lipe Mar­ti­na of Cu­ra­cao for Pub­lic Ser­vice lead­er­ship – Doc­tor of Laws (LLD)